Snap, Crackle ... Read online

  “Good for you,” she said, “but I don’t have that same security, that same sense of assurance that I can do this,” she whispered.

  “And that’s because you’re still running in fear, and nobody would expect you to be running on anything but fear right now,” he said. “Don’t misunderstand. We don’t expect you to handle all this on your own.”

  “Aren’t you?” she said, shooting Hunter a veiled look.

  “No, not at all,” Stefan said, “and, of course, we don’t necessarily understand all the ins and outs of what’s currently happening, but you need help, and I’m someone who knows you, who knows what you went through because I’ve gone through it myself, and I’m willing to help.”

  “And why is that again?” she asked. “Why would you put yourself in a position where you could get hurt again? Or where those you love could get hurt?”

  “I have safeguards here for my family,” he said, “so I’m not worried about them.”

  “You should be,” she said, quietly studying Celina. “It’s obvious that she loves you.”

  “And that love will not die at the end of this lifespan either,” he said, studying Beth. “You just haven’t necessarily come to that same acceptance yet.”

  “It’s a little hard to,” she said, “when everything out there is so intent on hurting me.”

  “And that’s something we have to fix. You need to have the same time to heal that I had.”

  “And how do I get that?” she asked, staring at him.

  “Fearful?” Hunter asked. “Again?”

  “Who wouldn’t be?” she said, glaring at him.

  “Hey,” Hunter held up a hand, saying, “I’m not making this more difficult for you.”

  “Well,” she said, “you couldn’t prove it by me.”

  He groaned. “Look. We’re not supposed to be at loggerheads here.”

  She gave him another flat stare. “Then let me go.”

  “I’m not holding you anywhere,” he said, and she just stared at him. He frowned, then looked at Stefan.

  Stefan said, “That’s me, not Hunter.”

  She said to Stefan, “Then let me go.”

  “I can,” he said, “but you’ll just get hurt again.”

  “Maybe, and maybe it doesn’t matter.” She didn’t know where all this defiance came from, but that feeling of being held captive would never go down well. She waited, edgy for him to answer.

  Finally he nodded and said, “I won’t hold you any longer. You’ve been held for too many years in your life. I just wanted you to know that you were safe here, could heal here.”

  “No, this is where you think I’m safe,” she murmured, “but you don’t know that.”

  “No, I don’t,” he admitted, “but I’d like to think that you are safe here.”

  “What you consider safe and what I consider safe are two different things.”

  “Does it matter?” Celina asked impulsively. “You’re obviously still hurt, and people are out there after you.”

  “And how will you handle it when they come here and burn down the house?” she asked Stefan.

  He tilted his head and said, “A shield is around the property.”

  She nodded. “There might be, but that won’t help you in this case. They have somebody who can create all kinds of hell with fire.”

  “There will always be people out there who can do that,” he said. “It depends on what kind of fire and whether it’s that hard to put out.”

  “I don’t know. I’ve never seen them test it,” she said, “but I know he was working on all kinds of chaos with it.”

  “Of course,” Hunter stepped in. “You keep saying he.”

  She hesitated and turned to Stefan. “I don’t know who the boss was, much else the others. Do you?”

  He shook his head. “No. I never did find out. And I assumed that you hadn’t survived the last set of testing.”

  She stared at him for a long moment, the shudders working through her. “I almost didn’t,” she said. “One of those sets of testing, much later of course, turned me into the person I am now.”

  “And what does that mean?” Hunter asked, leaning forward. “We’re tiptoeing around this concept, but what exactly are your abilities?”

  “Maybe I don’t have any,” she said, giving him a flat stare.

  “You evaded capture all this time,” he said, “and whatever we saw with that electricity outside was pretty damn scary.”

  She frowned. “What was scary about it?”

  “You should have seen it,” Celina said. “The whole place lit up, like in the center of a large electrical storm.”

  “Well, that’s not a bad thing,” Beth said quietly.

  “Maybe not, but we saw a holographic image of you flash time and time and time again, all in different places.”

  At that, Beth frowned. “In different places?”

  “Yes, very much different places,” Stefan said, looking at her curiously. “You didn’t know?”

  “I kept calling the energy back,” she said, “but, when I’m tired, I don’t have the energy to pull it all in as I need it.”

  “The fact that you can even separate it off like that is amazing,” he said quietly.

  She gave a half smile. “Not really,” she said, “it’s basically a failure on my part.”

  “A failure, how?” he asked.

  “My body cannot handle the lack of energy, the lack of focus. I was hurt and basically crying out, looking for answers, looking for help. And, when I did that, instead of a thought going out into the ethers, a piece of me went as well.”

  “But you can call it back?” Hunter asked in amazement.

  She looked at him and said, “When I’m strong enough, yes.” She was reluctant to tell him any more because she still held that inability to truly trust that he was who he said he was or that he was doing anything good for her. And how sad was it that her world had come down to that.

  “So you were surprised to hear that we saw various slices of you?” Stefan asked. He was always the observer, always the one figuring this out.

  She shrugged. “I don’t know what I expected or what I thought exactly. I was dying and struggling to reach you. Nothing worked as intended.” She released a heavy sigh, as she slowly rotated her neck. “It’s hard to understand just how bad things can get,” she said quietly.

  “Not necessarily, we’ve all been there,” Stefan said. “It’s just that, in your mind, you’re always alone.”

  “Because I always have been,” she said, with a start.

  “And I get that,” he said. “I really do. But you have to remember that you’re not alone anymore.”

  “Sure, I am,” she said. “I’ll leave here, and, although you’ll remember me after I’m gone,” she said, “it won’t be long before you’ll go on about your life as before. You may wonder, but you’ll carry on as if it doesn’t matter because, to you, it really doesn’t.”

  Stefan stared at her in shock. “Yes, it does matter.”

  She gave him a mocking smile. “Of course it does,” she said, with a long and drawn-out tone.

  Hunter studied Stefan, then stared at his guest with a worried look. “Stefan cares a lot.”

  “That’s because he feels guilty because he tried to help me. I’m the one he never could save.”

  “All the more reason that he wants the chance to help you now.”

  “Nothing he can do.” She hopped to her feet, gave her body a quick shake.

  “And what makes you think it’s safe now?” Hunter asked.

  “Well, it’s probably not, but I think I’m okay to deal with it now.” She walked to the front door, turned at the entranceway to stare at Stefan. “Thanks for not telling me to stay.”

  He gazed at her steadily. “I meant what I said,” he said. “You were a captive for long enough. I won’t cage you again.”

  She smiled. “And that is appreciated.”

  “However, I would still prefer tha
t you stay.”

  “Well, I can’t,” she said. “Staying here won’t help either of us. It won’t get me someplace safe and free and clear of all this.”

  “What will?”

  “Walking out that door and disappearing into the night again,” she murmured. “This time I guess I’ll have to go a little bit farther away.”

  “Is that feasible?”

  “It has to be,” she said, studying him carefully. “Only so much anyone can do, Stefan. You’ve done what you can for me, and I appreciate it.”

  Celina patted Stefan, then nodded at Beth, sadness in her eyes. “I put together a small bag of clothing for you at the door. Be safe.”

  With that, Beth smiled, turned, grabbed the bag, opened the door, and stepped out.

  *

  Hunter immediately swore and got up to go after her. He couldn’t believe that she just smiled and left. “Stefan, we can’t just let her go back out there again.” No immediate shots were fired, but, as he hit the front door, he saw that she was gone, as in gone-gone. He raced around the vehicles outside, looking high and low for her. When he came back to the front door, he studied Stefan, standing there, with his hands on his hips and a frown on his face. “Did you expect her to leave?”

  Stefan shook his head. “No,” he said, “not at all. I had a field up. She shouldn’t have escaped.” Stefan stared at the field and said, “That’s never happened before. Have you ever seen anybody cross the field?”

  Hunter shook his head. “I didn’t think that possible. How could she?”

  “Probably because she’s electricity,” Celina said. “She’s obviously dealing with a lot of electrical currents, so this either energized her or possibly was something that she didn’t even notice.”

  “Energizing her wouldn’t have been bad, but then why wouldn’t she have gone out earlier?”

  “She wasn’t strong enough,” Celina said, staring at him. “Did you see how she moved just now? Smooth, light?”

  “I know. I know. I know,” Hunter said, raising both hands. “I’m just frustrated.”

  “Can’t you get through the shield?” Stefan asked, a tiny smile at the corner of his lips.

  “I can,” Hunter said, already reaching for his jacket. He turned, looked at Stefan, and said, “I don’t know how long it’ll take me.”

  Stefan looked at him, nodded. “It won’t be as easy as you’re thinking. Her defenses have kept her alive. She won’t lower them anytime soon.”

  “So we do nothing?” he asked, shoving his fists into his pockets, as he waited for Stefan to answer him.

  “No, not at all. You must understand that we were kept in cages at the compound. Anything that doesn’t have wide open windows and an open door will feel like a cage to her. And I won’t do that to her.”

  Hunter nodded. “I get that. But she’s also a link to a group of people who are hurting gifted people like us,” he said. “I can’t live with that. We have to do something.”

  “And do you think there’s no other way to do it but with her help?” Celina asked the two men nervously.

  “Easier with her help, I would presume,” Hunter said reluctantly.

  “I think she’s pulling the electricity from my field around her,” Stefan said, with a sigh. “If I drop it, we’re in danger of having somebody up in the hills fire back at us, and, if I keep it up, it’s something that she can continue to pull on and to use to hide from us.”

  “Then keep it up,” Hunter said immediately. “I’ll let you know when I find something.”

  And, with that, he disappeared into the force field.

  *

  Celina placed her hand in Stefan’s. “If that’s the case, how can he go through it?”

  “He’s an energy hunter, so he can move through almost all mediums. Energy was one that took him the longest to figure out, but he can use it to track her.”

  “Is that wise?”

  “Hunter appears to be on a mission,” Stefan said, quietly sliding an arm around his wife’s shoulders and pulling her up close.

  “I like her,” she murmured.

  “I do too,” Stefan said. “She was very young when I was there. I think only five, maybe six, but just a child, barely more than a toddler. She had no idea what was going on, but she never once cried for her mommy and daddy. I remember that. I tried to befriend her and did for a time, but there was only so much I could do as a prisoner myself. But I did try to comfort her, you know, help her sleep and ease her fear when she was locked up.”

  “Did she even have parents at the time?”

  “I don’t know,” he murmured. “I don’t remember.”

  “But she remembered you, and, even after all these years, she found you. That’s what I find stunning.”

  “I think she experienced a shock wave, almost like a slice of her memory returned to her. Maybe because of all the fragmenting happening to her system. Regardless she somehow remembered me and managed to find me, which I don’t understand either. I’m not sure she understands any better.”

  “Do you think she’ll be okay?”

  He squeezed Celina’s shoulders gently. “Well, I can’t tell you what tomorrow will bring, but, for the moment, she’s okay.”

  “Why wouldn’t she stay?” she asked, with a note of urgency, turning to look up at him. “We could have helped her.”

  “We are helping her,” he said thoughtfully, still staring out the front door. “And I think Hunter will be the best thing for her.”

  “Why is that?”

  “Because of the energy they share,” he said, his lips twitching. “Hunter doesn’t know it, but he’ll get the shock of a lifetime when he figures this out.”

  “Figures what out?” she demanded.

  He looked down at her, gently kissed Celina’s forehead, and said, “They have a connection. A big one.”

  “What kind?”

  “The best kind,” he said.

  She glared at him, and he shook his head. “I’m not being difficult. I’m asking, is a big surprise coming for Hunter?”

  “Well, he has to find her first.”

  “Very true.”

  “And let’s hope he finds her quickly.”

  “Why? What do you see?”

  He stared off in the distance and shrugged. “Trouble. She’s had a lot of it in her life, and it won’t stop anytime soon.”

  “There’s got to be something we can do to help her,” she said urgently.

  “We’re working on it,” he reminded her. He motioned her back into the house. “It’s time to go inside.”

  “At least that bullet hole of hers healed.”

  “Dr. Maddy and I are both quite surprised by her ability to heal. It’s phenomenal.”

  “I wondered when I saw it,” she said. “It had only been two days, and it looked like it had already healed for several weeks. Almost closed over.”

  “If she’d rest longer, even another day, it probably would have been.”

  “Do you know what they did to her?”

  He hesitated and then slowly nodded. “I saw bits and pieces in visions,” he said, “and I saw enough when I was there with her to have a good idea.”

  “Well, … will you tell me?”

  He looked down at her and, with a serious tone, asked, “Do you want to have nightmares for the rest of your life?”

  She winced. “That bad?”

  “That bad,” he said, with a nod. “Absolutely that bad.”

  “Why are people like that?” she asked softly. “That poor woman doesn’t deserve this.”

  “No, she doesn’t, not at all,” he murmured. “And we’ve got to do what we can to help her, so they can’t capture her again. I think they kept her as a tool—as a weapon—and now they want that weapon back.”

  “You don’t think they did before?”

  “Oh, I think they did, but I also think that they have a use for her again. Perhaps she took off at a time when they had no particular use for her, and now they
do, and they’re angry. I don’t know. It’s hard to say.”

  “Do you think that they let her come here specifically to lead them to you?”

  He stopped, looked at her, and said, “I was hoping you wouldn’t guess that option.”

  “I’m not a fool,” she said, steadily looking at him. “When people come here, it’s usually because you let them.”

  “Very much so,” he said. “I always put that beacon out there, in case people need help, but that doesn’t always mean I know what’s coming.”

  “And that’s the concern,” she said quietly. “Because you don’t know if maybe this woman didn’t lead some other element here.”

  “Well, it’s not another element that she had any control over,” he said quietly, as he locked the front door.

  “And then you lock the front door,” she said, almost laughing in dismay. “What good will that do?”

  He said, “We have people who can walk through walls. We have people who can walk through doors, but still, if you put up an energy message that says, ‘Keep out,’ it’s one more lock they have to figure out.”

  She nodded. “I know that. It just seems so pointless.”

  “It’s not pointless,” he said. “Let’s go have tea.”

  “Tea doesn’t solve everything either,” she said in a wry tone.

  “Nope, it doesn’t, but it sure does make us feel better.”

  And, with that, she laughed and let herself be led to the kitchen.

  Chapter 5

  Beth melted into the scenery around her, a particularly easy skill for someone like her. She hadn’t told Stefan, and she hadn’t wanted Hunter to even know, but wrapping in the energy of those around her let Beth hide almost indefinitely. But the thing about being hunted was that Beth had learned how to become safe as prey too. She knew what the hunter would do to find her, so she could counteract that somewhat.

  As she leaned against the tree, letting her energy camouflage with the tree itself, she studied the surroundings, while doing a self-assessment. Her body’s energy was at about 50 percent, the wound at 80 percent. She rubbed a hand over it gently, feeling the sore muscles and the puckered skin beneath her fingertips. A ball of healing energy added to the sensation.